What did you do today (2015)

I discovered the importance of not allowing blood and fat to contaminate Morse tapers.

**LINK**

Nice to know that if I ever get an artificial hip my leg will be interchangeable with my other tooling.

Neil

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Ian,

Avoiding the temptation to discuss Hot Air Engines ...

My very best wishes for your safety.

MichaelG.

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Fascinating article, Neil

Design project ? ... How to fit a Draw-Bar

MichaelG.

Finally completed (for now) fitting a 3 phase motor and inverter to my VMB and wiring it all up. Seems to work nicely!

Two reasons to fit, one was the stupidly designed original speed change mechanism was driving me crazy. It had 3 pulleys, one 3-step on the motor, one 4-step idler, another 4-step on the spindle. The idler was mounted on a sliding bearing that you needed to loosen with 4 hard to access nuts to change speed. There was also a big gap in the middle of the speed range. Other reason is to increase the maximum speed. So I have re-mounted the 4 step idler on the motor, giving 4 pulley ratios which also eliminates that pesky idler, and using a VFD to fill in the gaps. The maximum speed is slightly higher than before, and will be higher when I figure out how to program the VFD to allow the speed control pot to set the frequency to higher than 50 Hz.  Anyone know how to programme the Altivar 28 please?

Edited By John Haine on 04/01/2015 20:11:46

Hi John, I think I have a manual for the Altivar 28 - I will look for it tomorrow, will be in touch by pm if I have it.

Chris

Thanks for the offer Chris - actually I have the manual, it's puzzling it out that is the problem! Not the clearest read....

John.

John, I am sure the Altivar 28 is the inverter driving my 3 ph motor on the lathe, I think it replaced my previous inverter and not the other way round! I will try and remember what I did to programme it for me, if that would be any help.

Chris

Chris, that would be much appreciated, thanks! Do you run it at speeds faster that 50 Hz? I think it is to do with the HSP parameter setting.

Cheers, john.

I spent the morning in the workshop till it reached 35C and sun was hitting the door way, in for lunch and rest of the day indoors in AC.

I wonder if the honey became like Honey crumble at some point yum. Not good fires raging in South Australia, Victoria and I guess we will see them here in NSW soon.

Hi John.

I have an Altivar 28 fitted to my milling machine. It's a bit of a pain understanding the manual .

The fact you only set it up the once doesn't help.

But from what I can remember I set parameter tFr ( DrC- menue page 63) to the max output frequency I wanted

And parameter -HSP (SEt- menue page 59) to the same value.

Regards Ian

I went to knock hill to watch rally cars, temp did not reach 3 degree C and the wind would have cut you in two. In workshop this evening made a couple of tee bolts for hold down clamp, nothing more exciting, but getting back into the shop

Hi Ray, not as warm here, as you have, got a niece in the hill suburbs of Adelaide, have not heard if she's in the fire area, I know they have bush fairly close to the house.

Yes I was going to work on a hot air engine, it's a horizontal, air cooled rhombic drive motor.

Ian S C

John Haine - I have sent you a pm.

Chris

PS as Ian says, the manual isn't the clearest to use and only using it the once certainly doesn't help, can vouch for that!

Edited By ChrisH on 05/01/2015 14:48:15

Just wanted to say a big thanks to Chris H and Ian for their help on programming my inverter. I can now run my mill up to 75 Hz as I wanted, once you know the trick 'tis easy.

Fixed my hydraulic clutch.

Instead of dropping the engine and gearbox and replacing the slave cylinder I clicked the retaining clip back into position, plugged the flexible pipe from the master cylinder back in and bled the system.

I have no idea how such a protected union could get 'unclipped', especially as I have been no-where near it for months :-/

Still, glad to avoid a massive job or a massive bill (or both).

Neil

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Check the Brake pipes as well, Neil

... You may have enemies

MichaelG.

Dragged the little 3D printer screaming and kicking into a new year.

Some while ago I bought 10 fuse blocks from RS but when they were delivered they were missing the fuse blade part.

Got onto them and they said they would send 10 out but obviously not a serviceable part so they just renewed the order with ones with the blade in.

So for a couple of years this has irked me in that they are new holders, just missing the blade. So a friend drew a blade up as he can use 3D CAD better than I can and I printed off a few last night.

So for once a perfectly valid part done on a 3D printer that's useable.

I was lucky enough to get the Christmas period off this time (first in 8 years or so) and finally managed to fit my new chuck I got for my birthday back in May so I'm a happy bunny now

That's the second time in two years I've been able to finish something, this beginning to be a habit

Paul

Spent time with Senior Management, went shopping with her, recovered a footstool for her and with her help, may have earned another shed exit visa!

Also had to order a new MagSafe power supply for the MacBook as the old one went pop - literally, loudly - last night. Hope the problem is with the MagSafe and not the MacBook. Also had to order a new external drive to back up the MacBook as the old one was too small and insufficient memory remained. Is money no object anymore?

Chris

Strange that there was so much response about the coffee; yet no-one has expressed the slightest interest in the chuck design.

MichaelG.

I see that the "other"(?) Tubal Cain posted a video last month about something very similar. Yes, I've just been doing some serious armchair engineering. The old chestnuts like MrPete222 and weldingtricksandtips.com You know how it is - one thing leads to another and before you know it you are in a completely different zone to where you started. No law against it so far!

Murray